They’ll name a city after us & Easier than it looks
Abi: One thing that irks me about humans, is that some of us tend to think of things in terms of limitation as opposed to possibility. We think of millions of reasons why we can’t, shouldn’t or wouldn’t. We devote so much time to this reasoning that we fall into a pattern and begin to apply this way of thinking to almost every element of our lives.
We limit and restrict ourselves to such a point that we forget to see, we forget how to feel and we no longer entertain the idea of letting go. We miss opportunities and let things slip through our fingers.
The second image in my 52 weeks collaboration with my dear Sebastian.
Partly inspired by his love of all things sky “They can make or break a landscape, Abi” (something I have not attempted to photograph before). And parly musing on the topic of greatness and potential.
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Seb: Obviously influenced by Abi’s 1 of 52, I’m being rather experimental here. I’m not a self-portrait master by any means — I don’t even have a remote for my camera!
So this is a 10-second dash and the hardest I’ve ever had to do. It’s REALLY hard to balance a blackberry on your nose when your camera is ticking down… Needless to say, getting the blackberry into the 1-centimetre plane of focus was also fairly difficult…
Why black and white? The colour version is actually quite nice but B/W made the blackberry pop right out. The incredibly-narrow depth of field is also a little distracting in the colour version. Incidentally, the larger version is well worth seeing, for the detail of my beard and the blackberry if nothing else!
(As a blog-only treat, here’s an outtake of the blackberry rolling off my face… I believe my mouth is starting to form the words ‘Oh shit’…)
Anyway, it’s now blustery and chilly here in the UK and I think the next few weeks will take a look at the beginnings of AUTUMN! (Fall, for you Americans.)
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Click the images to visit our Flickr streams. You can comment either here or there!
debsmuddle
Sep 7, 2009
Oh god Abi your first statement above is just so me. I am the eternal pessimist.The way you have worded that really has made me think.
Abi
Sep 7, 2009
I think it is an element partially present in many of us Debs, It is not wholly a bad thing.. just something that can escalate I guess.
Eleni
Sep 8, 2009
Beautiful photos, both of you. Abi, your sky photo is so free and hopeful. I love it!
Seb, while the term ‘fall’ is frequently used here in the U.S. to refer to the season following summer and preceding winter, so is the term ‘autumn’; your translation is unnecessary, slightly confounding, and a bit irksome. Maybe you already knew that.
Sian
Sep 8, 2009
Abi: So I *can* have a confetti cannon??
Seb: Very precise beard. Well done.
sebastian
Sep 8, 2009
I’m so glad so many people noticed the beard! I shaved especially for the occasion.
Eleni — I was merely translating for the large number of Americans that look at me emptily when I use the word ‘autumn’. I know, it’s sad. Not everyone is as educated or scientific as you!
I hear American scientists even spell it ‘Aluminium’ like the rest of the world…! They are obviously set apart from the rest of the populace
Abi
Sep 8, 2009
“unnecessary, slightly confounding, and a bit irksome”- Would make a fantastic epitaph!. Just saying
Glad you all like the shots!.. Sian… of course you may have a confetti cannon- nothing is too good for you!.
Eleni
Sep 9, 2009
Educated? Scientific? I would have said the seasons were a topic covered in first grade! Alas, the poor state of science education these days!
Sorry, I have to disappoint you on ‘Aluminium’. I very rarely hear or see it that way. Fewer syllables and iambic rhythm just rolls of the tongue nicely.
sebastian
Sep 14, 2009
Hm… maybe it’s just the upper crust of American academia and scientific research that actually use the -ium suffix…
I think Shakespeare would have something to say about the rhythm of American words…